The first flight of the ladies free was not a thrilling group to watch, as usual it was a little scary watching some of the ladies. Most of the ladies in the first flight lack the confidence to execute their technical elements.
Gabby Daleman is the Canadian National Champion, but I'm not confident in her staying power. She doesn't have great jump technique, and we saw here that just throwing herself into the air isn't always going to work. Most of the jumps she gets seem to just be getting by on sheer force of will. Though her programs are good, I don't think they really suit her. I think she would do better going the Duhamel/Radford route and going for something stronger and more powerful in music choice, rather than trying to make her a skater she isn't. Her skating skills and interpretation are improving, but the programs don't show her strengths. In a lot of ways they emphasize her weaknesses. She's coming along, but I would like to see her embrace the skater she is and spend some time re-working her jump technique. She's young and there's still time to fix it.
I don't have whole lot to say about Angelina Kuchvalska's skating. The foot work was too slow, the transitions were too simple, all my usual complaints. The skating was fine, but the music choice was terrible. Not only is she skating to two horribly overused pieces of music, El Tango Roxanne and the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet, but she is using both those pieces in the same program. They don't make sense together. There were stark cuts between the pieces, and her skating didn't change much either. It was just very strange and a really terrible freeskate choice.
The second flight of ladies in the freeskate was about the same as the first. There will still a whole lot of technical mistakes, and the programs overall were just okay, but that's about what we expect with the earlier flights at worlds.
In the third flight, Gracie Gold made a good comeback after a less than stellar short program with a solid free. I'm still not crazy about either of her programs, and I don't think she is either. Either way, she skated strongly in the free, but the short held her off the podium.
There's something missing from Mae Berenice Meite's programs this season. Both programs don't really suit her style. The only time the programs really come to life is during her footwork sequences. The music for the footwork in both programs works for her, but the rest of the music is too soft for her. Like Gabby, she is a powerful skater who needs more powerful music. She doesn't seem to connect to this music. She didn't skate terribly, but it wasn't spectacular either.
Ashley Wagner had a bit of a disaster in the short program, but she recovered well in the freeskate. As tired as I am with Moulin Rouge this season, her program is probably the best. However, her transitions irritate me, because they are the same ones as the Sampson and Delilah from last season and the season before. They don't really work, and she could have been amazing if they had actually done new choreography.
Polina Edmunds, like her teammates, did not have a great short program, and recovered well in the freeskate. She has improved her control of her lines since even US Nationals. She's getting better, but still has a long way to go. However, it's time for some more mature programs. Her programs still feel very young, which don't help her with her PCSs and the overall feeling of the program for the audience, especially skating immediately after Ashley Wagner.
Anna Pogorilaya has had a rough season, and it didn't let up in Shanghai. Her short was not great, and her free was a bit of a disaster. She hardly skates with her music on a good day, and on a day like she had for the free here, the music might as well have not been playing at all. That hurt her a lot, on top of all the technical mistakes, because there wasn't anything to give her in the PCSs.
Alaine Chartrand surprised everyone with her fantastic short program, unfortunately, her freeskate was not as good. She was lacking speed and confidence, so the jumps were not as good. There were a few jumps that were significantly underrotated, and the mistakes really hurt her. Despite her not so great free, she still finished in the top 13, just barely nudged out of the top 10.
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